$25 World of Warcraft Mount Launches on Blizzard Store

[Darksqueee]

This is just...sad. But hats of to Blizzard for knowing how to make money at the lowest possible cost to them.

 

[Soxafloppin]

If they make an IRL one, i want it.

 

[Yokai]

Sad. Sad that people will pay a quarter of a hundred dollars for a collection of pixels that has no value on its own and doesn't even benefit you in-game. Sad that Blizzard has made millions off this stupid space-horse already. Sad that WoW is nothing more than a fuckhuge cash cow.

 

[Skratt]

It really comes down to money vs. time. While $25 is quite steep, I am really looking forward to the day they bottom out the farming economy by offering you mini transactions to buy things in game you normally have to spend time farming materials or gold.

That is an awful idea. You want people to be able to gain an actual advantage because they have more disposable income? Fuck that. That would ruin the game, plain and simple.

I appreciate your position, but I sincerely disagree.

A system that gives advantage to people with disposable free time is no better or more noble than those that have disposable income. The entire premise of an MMO is that you keep paying money. It does not matter if I pay $150 and play for 3-4 months or you pay $150 and play for 10 months, the net result is that Blizzard made $150 from each of us, I just got to cut to the chase and save 6 months of time.

Repetitive shit like gold farming, dungeon & drop farming, honor farming, reputation farming are not game mechanics, they are carrot on a stick reward mechanics that are the antithesis of entertainment designed to keep you making the company money. The only difference between my opinion and yours, is that I recognize the word FARMING in all of those activities and acknowledge I am just a cow that Blizzard wants to keep milking for money and I would like them to drop the pretension and allow me to pay a little extra money so I don't have to waste months doing the repetitive shit and can just play the parts of the game that are fun to me like exploring, fighting challenging monsters, learning the in game lore that comes from interacting with the NPCs, sneaking past stuff that can kill me to get places when I probably should be a few levels higher and finally playing with other players in cooperation or competition. You know, the actual stuff that the developers spent time designing.

You've argued your point well, I'll give you that. I'm very uncomfortable with the idea that someone can gain such a significant advantage just because they have their parents credit card at hand. As soon as Blizzard starts giving away things that give you a combat advantage for money, you would pretty much be forced to purchase it (making millions upon millions) or fall behind. This seems like unfair trading to me. In the form of materials and gold being purchasable, I guess we just disagree with what's acceptable. I won't try to convince you to my side, because there's no lack of understanding on either side, just disagreement. That's fine.

Well said. I think we actually feel the same way. I've come to accept that I have a very small amount of free time and support micro transactions if it allows me to buy the same stuff others can get for "free" because I have no other means to stay competitive in a game that requires copious amounts of free time. Then again, just because I support it, doesn't mean I think that items are priced right...but that's a whole other argument.

 

[Malifact]

The day that WoW starts selling gear to players is the day I toss my computer out of a window. If you don't want to invest the time and effort into getting the gear, don't bother playing. It's lazy, it's cheap, and it does away with the sense of satisfaction which comes after finally getting that last piece of epic loot. If any idiot can spend a few bucks to buy full T-10, it does away with the whole point.

Let's put it this way: allowing players to buy gear is the equivalent of Bungie putting RECON up for sale. Or letting you instantly get a "General" ranking in Modern Warfare (or some such equivalent)

If you don't play WoW, do not offer your "professional opinion" as to why you think "micro-transaction" is the right thing for Blizzard to do. If you can spend 6 months leveling your character to 80, you've got plenty of time to Raid for gear. And with the new PUG feature, it's easier than ever to acquire gear and emblems for your character. (For those of you not in the know, emblems are in-game items which can be traded in for gear.)

Would I buy the horse? Yes! One more mount in the stable; only 47 more to go till I get that [Calling in the Cavalry] achievement.

 

[Judgement101]

More proof that WoW turns people into zombies that just play an already rich company

 

[Malifact]

More proof that WoW turns people into zombies that just play an already rich company

If you don't play, don't comment. You just don't understand

 

[Judgement101]

More proof that WoW turns people into zombies that just play an already rich company

If you don't play, don't comment. You just don't understand

Actually I used to play but I broke my addiction when my account got locked

 

[alinos]

Blizzard's diabolical schemes are endless.

its not diabolical when the item was asked for by the community

and the community paid it they paid half of an expansion for it

 

[Zion Kai]

You know, Mabinogi does let you ride unicorns...

 

[Malifact]

You know, Mabinogi does let you ride unicorns...

So does WoW

"Quel'dorei Steed"

Look it up.

 

[Tribalism]

That's a faulty point, this only applies to DLC, not games. WoW is a bad case for this because first of all its an MMO, which relys on roping players in and constantly charging them, signigifigantly different than games like MW2. Infact, it starts at a lower price point to draw players in.

So let me get this clear, we're saying this is "okay" because WoW is an MMO? DLC has always been expensive and outside of the free MMO games, never has a vanity item such as this horse been so expensive. Free to play games can "almost" get away with it, because they don't earn money from subscriptions and thus must get their income from somewhere. Even for the free MMOs, there was never a queue system implemented for an expensive item such as this. The entire concept screams that Blizzard are saying "we're doing this because we can and you'll eat it up like the fanboys/girls you are" and by "Blizzard" I'm sure you know who I'm really referring to.
Again, a game should not be excused for its background/past actions. Given its history, we might expect a little better from a formerly respectable company such as Blizzard, but that does not exempt it or a particularly bad company from being able to pull this shit.

first of all, with all the people bitching about mw2's price, that's obviously false.

I was talking from a company's stand point. A company will still likely make a huge profit on a game regardless of whether it's sold at £40 or £45. Modern Warfare 2 was an experiment, I imagine, to see whether people would buy the game at £50 or whatever it was released at. Blockbuster games like MW2 manage to rake in huge profits despite all the boycotting (there was a lot of it, especially on PC, I believe in excess of 5 million copies and that was only counting public torrent sites) and they still would have made plenty of profit had they sold for £5 less. A company can afford to cut the price of games, but because of the competitive market and the way gamers are nowadays (will eat up any shit at any price) they will price it higher and cut a greater profit.

I'm glad you admit that it is subjective. If the person thinks it looks really good, then it's worth the 25 dollars. Hell, if I saw novelty shoes at a store that were just normal shoes but they had, say, Triforces stitched on the heel but the price was $100, I would buy it, someone else would say "Oh I don't care much for zelda and you can get similar shoes for much less but it's worth it TO ME

*sigh* Because an item has a certain price tag, it does not mean it is worth that much. An item is worth how much someone is willing to pay for it, if we're going by the dictionary definition. This disregards the mental state of the customer. If I win the lottery and choose to invest all of it into a games development company who had one previous title which did not sell very well at all, it's subjective that I think that this is a worthwhile decision. If I decide to buy (okay, I'll admit, I'm grasping at straws here as I don't ACTUALLY play WoW)4 accounts for WoW so that I can have a character of every race and class combination at both level 80 and at lower levels, I might consider it worth my while because that's how I choose to enjoy the game and I consider it a worthwhile investment per month. Does this mean that either of my decisions are wise? Does this mean that other people aren't going to talk shit about me because of this? Of course not, you're being irrational.

From a rational stand point (i.e. from people who don't play WoW compulsively) then "$25 spent on pixels is silly". I've seen only a handful of people who DON'T play WoW support this mount. It's exploitation, Blizzard know they can sell to the WoW addicts and they can sell at a very high price. They could have sold it for $10 and as a vanity item, it seems a little more respectable this way. But either way, haters gonna hate and nobody will be fully behind any movement by Blizzard. Subjectiveness is a fair argument if you can take it with a sense of rationality, and not to flame on the WoW community, but they rarely can take things rationally when they pay a monthly fee to own the right to play a game that has so much grind/farming in it.

80k out of 6 million. That's pretty unique.

How many of those accounts do you think are inactive/held by gold farmers? 6 million might be the number on the box, but I've seen people do crazy things with statistics and could happily believe it's a fraction of that figure. From what I've heard, 90% of the WoW population despise the horse either because of what it stands for or because they're jealous. I won't argue that these things are "rare", 80k isn't a large amount of the proposed population. Having said that, you'll still see a lot of them (I imagine anyone who bought the mount will be a very active player, so you'll see them a lot) and I've seen much better mounts which are a lot more difficult to obtain than stealing daddy's credit card and queueing in a virtual queue. Given all the bad press this horse has gotten, a lot of the prestige for owning the horse has been removed. People have even stopped people joining guilds/raid groups based on people owning the horse (as in, the horse owning is a bad thing).

"You're just jealous because you're poor and can't afford this sweet mount". Okay, you've got me there, I am poor. I'm a university student whose gaming binges come from the scraps I can pull from my loan when the bills are paid. Being poor doesn't mean that I don't know what my money is worth though. £15 is a fair price to see a live band, because I could easily spend more than that on an evening getting pissed, do something I regret and have a terrible hangover the night after. £40 is a fair price to pay for a game which I will replay several times over the course of a month and then resell for £30. $25 for a reskinned item which I could purchase with in-game money without having to spend 8 hours watching a countdown on a single webpage, waiting for my opportunity to buy a virtual item which has a "limited stock", which I can then unlock on my game that I have not only had to pay for every expansion disk for, but also have to pay a monthly fee to use an account to play the game. No, that's not a fair price. Pardon my French, but that is fucking extortionate.

Oh now you're just being a whiny *****. You need someone to stomp on to make yourself feel superior, so you pick the people who enjoy MMO games. Grow up. Not everyone has the same value system, get over it.

I'm whining because I don't have that much to spend on games? Did I ever say I was dissatisfied with the way my gaming situation is? Since university has started, I've managed to beat Borderlands, inFamous and Uncharted 2. That's it. That's in almost a full year. I simply don't get the time to play games that much with all the studying I do. That's not whining; I enjoy it.

...and you speak as though I don't play MMO games myself, I just don't pay for them. Some people just don't realise when they're being stomped on... by developers such as Blizzard who are milking WoW and will probably milk Starcraft II and Diablo 3 for all it's worth whilst they still can.

Whilst people might not have the same value system, it's people who lap up things like this, things like paying for valve DLC which is free on PC but not on consoles, buying clothes for their avatars on XBL etc. It's all of these things which drives up the cost of gaming for other users. There's no superiority complex there, it's a simple fact that if there is money to be made doing something, a company will do that. Do you want your precious WoW to have tonnes of microtransactions, separating the poor from the rich in a P2P MMO (something that only happens in F2P MMOs and is the reason, alongside quality, why people seek P2P games like WoW)? If so, then continue buying things like this mount and other items that promote the sales of virtual items in subscription based games like WoW.

look at who's being steroetypical. You want someone to grill on so you just say whatever. By the way, I'm asian, I like how you have to emphaszie those 'asians who kill themselves.' as if them being asian had to do with it.

Okay, you've got me there, I've probably got a chip on my shoulder about WoW but only because I think that it's counter-productive in society. It turns people into anti-social beings who don't answer calls or eat full meals during the time when they're raiding. It promotes elitist behaviour and disclusion of people based on petty things (people not being allowed into raids because of a $25 horse, because they haven't grinded long enough to have perfect gear for the raid etc.). It promotes, what I feel, are terrible things for society as a whole. If everyone took this behaviour, nothing would get done.

Let's look in the life of a family who all play WoW, a father, mother and child. Everyone gets home from work. Mother can't start work on dinner because she has a raid to attend at 6pm, so dinner is at 8pm. The child, who raids separately from his/her mother, has a raid at 8pm. S/he does not attend dinner because of this. Father has a raid not long after he returns from work, so he spends his dinner time in his office catching up on paperwork from his job. Mother eats alone. Child comes downstairs at 8:30pm and eats dinner as Mother is cleaning up, Father is still catching up on the paperwork. As a result, the entire family has only ~2-3 hours of time to communicate before going to bed and that assumes they don't play more than that one raid. They don't eat dinner together.

Do you understand my point now? Do you understand why I think so lowly of people who play WoW AND pour $25 into a single vanity item? With regard to the "asian" comment, it wasn't an attack on people of asian origins, but simply making sure people know which article I was referring to. If I had merely said "guy who dies playing WoW lol", people might not realise what I'm referring to.

Look at mister tribalism on the big bad internet, he stomping on what other people that haven't done anything to him, (No, a clan of WoW players making fun of you does not count as the entire WoW community) what reason for? I don't know, you tell me? Maybe he's just a giant asshole.

Look at mister pokedude1013 on the big bad internet, stomping on people for debasing WoW. It's called discussion, a flame here or there is to be expected, especially when discussing acts of such consumerist stupidity. Am I not justified, by the fact that the profits made on that horse alone could be used to fuel so much more than to further inflate the wallets of Blizzard, to hate on the WoW community for paying such a price for such a small item? Did the boycotters of L4D2/MW2 need more reasoning than they had? No.

 

[Malifact]

Okay, you've got me there, I've probably got a chip on my shoulder about WoW but only because I think that it's counter-productive in society. It turns people into anti-social beings who don't answer calls or eat full meals during the time when they're raiding. It promotes elitist behaviour and disclusion of people based on petty things (people not being allowed into raids because of a $25 horse, because they haven't grinded long enough to have perfect gear for the raid etc.). It promotes, what I feel, are terrible things for society as a whole. If everyone took this behaviour, nothing would get done.

Oh dear Christ... where to even begin...

I've probably got a chip on my shoulder about WoW but only because I think that it's counter-productive in society. It turns people into anti-social beings who don't answer calls or eat full meals during the time when they're raiding.

1. Absolute bullshit. The same can be said for any other gamer who is "on a killing streak" or doing great in a game. Why pick on WoW, when there are literally dozens of other games that have the same effect? Using the utmost extreme example (A very rare one too) as the focal point of your flame is not the way to convince people. It's like saying that since all terrorists are muslims, all muslims are terrorists.

It promotes elitist behaviour and disclusion of people based on petty things (people not being allowed into raids because of a $25 horse, because they haven't grinded long enough to have perfect gear for the raid etc.) It promotes, what I feel, are terrible things for society as a whole. If everyone took this behaviour, nothing would get done

2. Okay. As an active Raider on WoW, I can tell you right now that NO ONE gets turned away from a Raid because they don't have a mount. And you seem to be laboring under the delusion that raiding is easy; it isn't. It's. Fucking. Hard. And the harder the raid, the better your overall ?gear score? needs to be. So, if your gear-score isn't good enough, you don?t get taken. Boo-hoo. Find an easier raid, or do some random heroic dungeons and get emblems with which to purchase better gear. Or better yet, join a Raiding Guild; they'll help you get geared. If you take an undergeared player along on a raid, you risk ruining it for everyone else. One underperforming DPS has the potential to ruin the raid, and god help you if your tank or healer has a crappy GS.
It's like getting a job; if you?ve got great credentials, they'll take you. If you don't? well, you won't get hired.

Look at mister pokedude1013 on the big bad internet, stomping on people for debasing WoW. It's called discussion, a flame here here or there is to be expected, especially when discussing acts of such consumerist stupidity. Am I not justified, by the fact that the profits made on that horse alone could be used to fuel so much more than to further inflate the wallets of Blizzard, to hate on the WoW community for paying such a price for such a small item? Did the boycotters of L4D2/MW2 need more reasoning than they had? No.

No. Your not justified. Stop calling the entire WoW community a bunch of brain-dead, elitist, hypnotized dickwipes who steal candy from children and taunt other people for not having a ?cool mount?. If you want to contribute your opinions, make sure it's an unbiased opinion.
You yourself admitted you don?t play WoW: Your in no position to be making criticisms of something you?ve never played, and clearly do not understand. Do some research next time, and maybe I'll be able to take you seriously.

And why the fuck do you care if Blizzard makes money? They're already making $1,980,000,000 a year from the subscriptions alone; 2 million dollars from the mount-sales isn't that big of a difference.
Blizzard will never take microtransactions beyond vanity pets... if you've got 6 monthes to spend (Or waste, as you believe) levelling your character to 80, I think you have PLENTY of time to get gear or grind a raid for a mount.

 

[Thwarted]

as long as the premium stuff stays cosmetic only im all for it.

 

[Tribalism]

1. Absolute bullshit. The same can be said for any other gamer who is "on a killing streak" or doing great in a game.

I'll concede this one seeing as this mainly concerns competitive raid guilds/players and casual gamers need not neglect such things.

Why pick on WoW, when there are literally dozens of other games that have the same effect? Using the utmost extreme example (A very rare one too) as the focal point of your flame is not the way to convince people.

Because I've never had the misfortune to meet people as addicted to a game so soul destroying as WoW. Now you'll attack me for being over-critical in this opening, but hear me out. Let's just take games with "kill streak" as an example (i.e. Xbox Live/PSN games such as MW2 etc.). None of those games force you to submit something akin to a CV to prove your worth in a semi-professional gaming clan. The friends who I knew who played WoW had a semi-competitive raid group and required an "application" to be sent off and checked through to see if they could join. Never has the term "srs bzns" been any more apt to satire something, people take some of these clans/guilds more seriously than some people take a job application. MLG, maybe, but that's a whole different ball game (and even then I imagine there's more required to get into some of these elusive WoW guilds @_@; ).
By its very nature, an MMO is meant to be gripping and force the player to play when there's little incentive. Needless to say, WoW-style raids are never exclusive to WoW, but there are few games that take them so seriously. Because of the way that the game is designed, if you miss out on your chance to run a Raid one evening, you miss the chance to run it with your guild for the rest of the week because they're locked out of it. This means that it buries a part in your schedule and you'll be disadvantaged if you don't attend at that time. I could relate this to a part time job, a dentist appointment or a multitude of other things. What do they all have in common? They're a chore, not a pleasure. With something like a computer game, there should be an option to just stop and back the fuck up without having huge repercussions.
And this isn't subject to just WoW, but WoW has pushed this further than any other game I've heard of has. I'll bring reference to them again, but my old friends used to play WoW and would allot each day of the week for a different raid, setting a time to do each raid. I imagine if I flat out say it, you'll disregard it, but I'm trying to keep this post slightly concise so: Games should be pick up and play. There should be no compulsion to play at a specific time and be punished for not doing so. You should be able to play when you feel like, not when everyone else demands you to.
And you want to know my biggest problem with WoW? The community. It's impossible to badmouth their game and they will create such a backlash at the slightest thing. Don't believe me? Just watch you or some other WoW player rip apart what I've just said, or just look at this thread. To anybody with a rational mindset, many of the concepts that WoW stands for are just... wrong, and yet the addicts/players will find no problem with it. They are happy to devote hours per week to raiding. They don't understand the psychological hook which makes them think they're having fun. And all the while they'll let their inflating egos inflate and elitist nature become more predominant.
I really don't hate WoW, I hate what it does to people. Just google that phrase, ask around with the non-WoW players and you'll find it's a very common complaint. I'm not pulling at extremes because a lot of people know someone who has been pulled in too much by this game.

It's like saying that since all terrorists are muslims, all muslims are terrorists.

You see, my quarrel is with the "extreme" points as you call it. Using your example, my quarrel is with the muslim terrorists, not muslims in general. A non-terrorist muslim would be a casual player who doesn't concern him/herself with the scheduled raids, someone who plays and explores as they like and treats it as a game and not a second job. A muslim terrorist is the "hardcore player" who lets the game change him/her. Yes, of course I despise the "muslim terrorists" because they are the ones to blame. I bear no grudge against "muslims" because of this. The sad fact is, most people who say "I play WoW" and not "I played WoW", more often than not, fall into the "muslim terrorist" category. Casual players are far and few between, or they do not mention it. Hence, I tar people who say "I play WoW" with the same brush because it's usually a fair action.

2. Okay. As an active Raider on WoW, I can tell you right now that NO ONE gets turned away from a Raid because they don't have a mount.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCjuFpQ3EeA
It may be intended for humour, but I imagine there's a lot of prejudice regarding that steed.

And you seem to be laboring under the delusion that raiding is easy; it isn't. It's. Fucking. Hard.

Irrelevant to the argument, however I've heard things that contradict this from my elitist WoW friends who just claims it's only hard because 90% of players are retarded. Take your pick: WoW players are elitist or raiding is easy.

And the harder the raid, the better your overall ?gear score? needs to be. So, if your gear-score isn't good enough, you don?t get taken. Boo-hoo. Find an easier raid, or do some random heroic dungeons and get emblems with which to purchase better gear.

Elitism. Regardless of whether or not it's justified, it promotes elitist behaviour.

Or better yet, join a Raiding Guild; they'll help you get geared. If you take an undergeared player along on a raid, you risk ruining it for everyone else.

Promotes elitism and drama.

One underperforming DPS has the potential to ruin the raid, and god help you if your tank or healer has a crappy GS.

Promotes drama.

It's like getting a job; if you?ve got great credentials, they'll take you. If you don't? well, you won't get hired.

So it's true what they say, WoW IS a job you have to pay for!

No. Your not justified. Stop calling the entire WoW community a bunch of brain-dead, elitist, hypnotized dickwipes who steal candy from children and taunt other people for not having a ?cool mount?.

I'll just let you do the "Elitist" proving point for me. As for brain-dead, you're justifying paying to work a job. As for hypnotised, why are you and many others vehemently defending this $25 vanity item which will only help pave the way for inflation in gaming? Just so you can get some e-fame and have a pretty pony to ride around on.

If you want to contribute your opinions, make sure it's an unbiased opinion.

Then I guess every WoW player should back off as well as the WoW haters <3 See ya then.

You yourself admitted you don?t play WoW: Your in no position to be making criticisms of something you?ve never played, and clearly do not understand.

Rich. I may be out of the loop, but I've heard more about that damn game than I should ought to. My friends who I hung around with all played it and talked about it every time we hung out. This isn't the "casual talking about a game", this is the "talking about nothing but a game". Please don't say I don't understand, because I do. If a man serves you a pile of shit in a restaurant, gives you a description of the pile of shit so you can read up on it and a group of people constantly talk to you about the intricacies of the shit, should I not know enough to give a half-hearted judgement on the shit and claim that I understand?

Do some research next time, and maybe I'll be able to take you seriously.

...really? Really? Come on man, I lurk these sort of threads and read up on this sort of crap. I've had friends talk about nothing but it for an entire year. I haven't read up on gear score, but I was aware of its existence before you mentioned it (I was under the assumption that you couldn't do a raid without the right gear score, my mistake.). Again with the assumptions and talking down, typical elitist behaviour.

And why the fuck do you care if Blizzard makes money? They're already making $1,980,000,000 a year from the subscriptions alone; 2 million dollars from the mount-sales isn't that big of a difference.

Re-read my posts. Once you cool your nerd rage, you might actually find that I've made a handful of comments about how this affects not only WoW but gaming on the whole. Stop looking for reasons to debase my arguments against WoW and address my posts as a whole.

Blizzard will never take microtransactions beyond vanity pets... if you've got 6 monthes to spend (Or waste, as you believe) levelling your character to 80, I think you have PLENTY of time to get gear or grind a raid for a mount.

Grinding is a waste. It may be an "enjoyable" waste, but it's a waste nonetheless. If you cut it out of the equation, you could simply stick to the things that were fun and quest/level on mobs if you want. The pursuit for the level cap is not 100% fun from start to finish. Of course, prove me wrong and make a few more level 80s. What's that? You can't be bothered? You want to get your friends to help rush you through and gear you up? But I thought this 6 months wasn't wasted and that you'd cherish every moment of it.

Either way, I'll be here, eating yours and every other WoW player's delicious tears when Blizzard finally sells out or simply takes vanity pets one step further. This is not a one-off occasion, I assure you and if it isn't nipped in the bud, this WILL affect gaming on the whole, extending beyond MMOs. You glorious WoW people will be well adapted to that lifestyle then, though, so don't worry your pretty little head about it.

 

[Brenna Murray]

Malifact I loved everything you had to say and Tribalism you need to get over yourself and your big words.

 

[chetoos]

WoW Sucks

Congratulations, you have posted a completely pointless post in a dead thread. I dont know why Im even responding to you, other than the fact that you have misunderstood the rift that exists between fact and opinion. I find first person shooters to be lacking, yet I do not bash them. go back to your dance village troll.